No Mas

This time of year really gets me thinking. Especially since we are a distance apart from our families. Growing up, both Josh and I valued all the time spent with our families. Sometimes you take for granted what you had, and don't realize it until you don't have it anymore.

A quick trip over to your mom's house. 

Watching a movie with your brother/sister on Friday night. 

Meeting up with cousins or nieces and nephews.

These are things that are tough to do when you live 900+ miles apart. It becomes even harder during the Holidays to not be together with friends and family.

Visiting Christmas Lights in Greeley, CO

A few years ago, I came up with a tradition or a saying that I wanted to catch on. During a difficult time during the Holidays, my Grandma became sick and had to go to the hospital. It's times like these that bring a family close together, though not a great situation to be getting together. This was just before Christmas. At one point, there was a question as to whether we would even have Christmas that year. So I said, "Let's just have Christ-no-Mas". Meaning, we didn't need to have all the gifts and wrapping paper and "stuff" to get together with everyone. We were all there, we scrambled together to get some food for a meal or two, since we were all there. Why not celebrate us being together as a family? We didn't need the "Mas" or extra stuff. We only need each other, and Christ.

There are a few different meanings of Christmas, depending on what you believe and think, but the bottom line is BELIEVING. 

Christmas Lights in Greeley, CO.
Another great display you must see is the Greeley Grizwalds

Whether a young child knows or understands what Christmas is all about, he or she believes that Santa may come to their house while they are sleeping, eat a cookie, drink some milk, leave footprints with soot, and drop off some new toys that they will find when they wake up super early the next day. The magic of having something to believe in is what we should all remember. Whether you get one gift, or ten, the thought of believing someone somewhere thought of you is enough.

So I venture to exercise Christ-no-Mas every year. As our families grow and gain more people and as we also lose some people and loved ones, I strive to believe in the time we have together is enough. 

Having a meal with family.
Inviting a friend over to sit and chat over coffee.
Visiting a family you haven't seen for a while.
The once-a-year-get-together should be enjoyed.

We never know when it may be our last day, or holiday, or season together. Gifts are a bonus. But we don't need all that extra "stuff" or Mas to celebrate the holidays. 

I hope you all have a very wonderful Holiday Season. Hug your loved ones. Enjoy the atmosphere. Give to others. Make a difference in someone else's life. For whatever you believe in or celebrate, Merry Christmas to you!

It's beginning to maybe feel like Christmas? [late post]

[another 'started but didn't finish' post. here it is anyway!]
With just returning to work recently, getting the hang of taking Jackson to daycare everyday, running on little to no sleep everyday and still running around doing EVERYTHING, it hasn't really hit me that Christmas is in a FEW DAYS. 

We finally got a Christmas tree last weekend. I know, finally right?! Decorated it, got some gifts wrapped (in between other chores and while Jackson was sleeping) and semi tried to clean the house. I haven't made Christmas cookies, though I was able to send out Christmas cards at the last minute. 

I'm lucky enough to have Christmas eve and day off this year. Haven't taken Jackson to see Santa yet this year. Even though he is so small he will likely not remember it, it's his first Christmas. So I'm going to do my best to get him to see Santa. Though, if it doesn't happen, next Christmas he will be a year old and it should be a bit more fun.

I'm realizing how much there is to do being a mom during the holidays. WOW! So much respect for the other Mom's out there!


And of course, I didn't finish this post and get it out before Christmas, so I'll post it now. Who cares. Just adding more to the busy of the season.

I hope your Christmas was a very special one. I hope you spent lots of time loving those close to you and enjoying little things in life with friends and family. 


Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas & Happy New year from my little family to yours :)

Holiday Happiness

Here are some photos of our holiday season to share with you all! A little late, but better late than never right?! We enjoyed our Christmas eve together just the 3 of us and loved talking to our parents and videoing with our nephew. Merry Christmas!

She was aso excited when a package came and she had a gift from Grandma!

For Christmas Eve dinner I made Grandpa's Potato Soup.

I got a new zip hoodie & an apron!

 Our plate of goodies! And our asian meatballs we munched on.

Lucy absolutely LOVED her monkey doll from Grandma!

{Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree}

While sitting in your home eating with friends and family and spending time together this holiday, this song comes to mind. I have a few Christmas songs that I absolutely love and this is one of them. I remember it was in the movie "Home Alone" and that might be where it is recently famous for. Enjoy!

Another great song, and this one is probably my favorite of all time. Not sure why. I remember when I was younger watching the "Very Brady Christmas" almost every year. Where the dad gets stuck in the mine on Christmas eve. This is the song that played and they all sang it and then everyone was rescued. Not sure why, but this has stuck with me ever since. It has some sort of deep meaning, I have yet to understand why. This video is one someone put together with lights on a house, but the band, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, is amazing. I was able to finally see them in person in November here in Phoenix, and wow was it great live!

Christmas photos from us to follow :)

Party like its 1993

Sitting and remembering great memories with family....think back to Christmas 1993.

I was 8 years old and my brother was 5. If I remember right what our plans were for Christmas, on Christmas eve we were headed over to Aunt Sandi & Uncle Gary's house where Grandma and Grandpa would meet us over there too. We would get there and I would find Alexa and we would play and Jimmy would head off with D'anne to roam around the house. Before long it was dinner time and the 4 of us kids would sit at the kid's table and eat. Not to worry, my food still didn't touch on the plate then. I remember hearing all the adults out in the other room talking and laughing at the dinner table as us kids talked about what we thought was in those presents. Dinner would be over and it was goodie time. We grabbed a few treats and there even might have been Aunt Sandi's Rum cake...mmmm...I want to try to make that someday. Soon it would be time to open gifts. This has long been a tradition in my mom's side of the family, probably long before I was around, the way the gifts are to be opened. We start youngest to oldest and open them one at a time, not forgetting to read the card who it's from. I think this made the whole process a lot of fun. You really focused on who got what from who. There were a few years when Uncle Chuck & Aunt Tracy came out from Texas, but we always would get a phone call from them or we would call them as soon as we were finished to thank them and tell them what we got.

Christmas Day was usually spent half at my Dad's house, we would go over Christmas eve and stay the night, and then later that morning we would go back to Mom's house and see what Santa brought us there. We would have another meal with Grams & Gramps and just enjoy the day together.

Now that I'm married and have a whole other family to think about, things get a bit more complicated. But I love that. I love having a big family and lots of people to see over the holidays. Yes, it can get complicated trying to organize with 15 different people but being able to see everyone is so worth it. 

I wish I had some pictures from way back then...

Monday Meatloaf & Christmas Decor

It is really hard to believe it will be Christmas in just 5 short days when it has been gorgeous outside here lately. I mean really gorgeous. 75 degrees gorgeous. Flip flop weather gorgeous and blues skies. Yep, this is winter in Arizona. While I do miss having snow on the ground in December and seeing my breath outside in the cool crisp air and the silence it brings with a crunch on the ground as the snow compacts beneath your shoes, wearing flip flops and capri's and being able to go swim in December is also a nice choice to have.

Decorating our condo has made it feel more like Christmas for us here. We got our tree up and decorated and some things around the house to look like the holidays. I've also made a few cookies and treats. It will just be Josh and I this year for Christmas eve. We both were lucky to get Christmas eve off to spend together, but I will be back at work on Christmas Day.

Some pictures of our decorating....ah-hem...my decorating. And some of my baking today. I'll share more when I'm done baking so I can share all the goodness I've been whipping up this week.

Now onto the Meatloaf I made tonight. Yum! I've never made a meatloaf before, thought I better give it a go and try it out. It really is a must-have in our house. Both Josh and I grew up having some great homemade dishes by our mom's and we can both remember having some good meatloaf. Nothing makes it feel like home like having some good meatloaf. I didn't have a recipe for this, so I looked a few up and this one was so easy and had great flavor!

Monday Meatloaf

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (I used a 2 lb chunk I had)

1 cup cracker crumb ( I used italian bread crumbs)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1 medium onion, chopped (As most always, I use half the onion)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
TOPPING
3/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons vinegar
 
In a large bowl combine all ingredients (not the topping) and form into a loaf shape. I used a cookie sheet and put it on that. I made it more flat than tall that way it would bake all the way through. It cooked and was falling apart, so great! Cook in 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes. Before putting in the oven combines all the topping ingredients and drizzle over the top. I only used about half to top with, then towards the end of baking I used more to drizzle on top. It turned out great and we have left overs!
 

Holiday Christmas Card 2010

Modern Cranberry Noir Christmas

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 Yep, I am done with my Christmas cards, now just patiently waiting for them to come in the mail. I usually don't share with everyone what they will look like, but why not! I'm pretty excited about them this year. Josh and I usually pride ourselves, ok we always pride ourselves, in taking the "do-it-yourself-photo" so we find a great one to use in the card each year. This year I wanted to do something different and with more background since now we live in Arizona and I wanted to get some cactus in the picture. We went and did a photo shoot the other day to take some nice photos of us. I think they turned out pretty good. The lighting wasn't that great because it was close to sunset, but geez we did them ourselves so I'll take it!

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